Attempt was made to strip Kim Dae-jung of Nobel Prize: NIS

By Yi Whan-woo

The Lee Myung-bak administration abetted a civic petition in 2010 to revoke the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to former liberal President Kim Dae-jung in 2000, the National Intelligence Service (NIS) claimed Tuesday.

The NIS said there was a failed attempt by the Lee administration to strip Kim of his Nobel Prize, using the spy agency and a rightist group.

In 2010, the civic group sent a letter to then-Nobel Committee Secretary Geir Lundestad, claiming the Nobel Prize awarded to the liberal president should be annulled. The attempt, however, failed.

The NIS found the group was actually paid by the spy agency under the Lee administration for the attempt.

The revelation against the NIS comes amid a series of allegations that the country’s spy agency meddled in elections and other political affairs in favor of conservatives under Lee’s term from 2008 to 2013. The spy agency has set up a special task force to investigate past wrongdoings.

According to the task force, the NIS psychological warfare unit initially set up the scheme against former President Kim. It then finalized its plan following approval from then-NIS director and Lee’s aide Won Sei-hoon and asked a civic group to write a letter to Lundestad under the group leader’s name.

The letter was originally written in Korean and translated into English before it was sent to Lundestad.

The NIS bore all expenses, around 3 million won ($2,600), for translation and mailing of the letter using its budget.

Kim was named as the Nobel Peace Prize winner in October 2000 in recognition of his inter-Korean reconciliatory efforts, including the summit between him and then-North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in June 2000.

The letter read that it was “inappropriate” to give Kim the prize. It referred to the scandal that his administration secretly offered large amounts of cash to North Korea in return for holding the unprecedented inter-Korean summit.

It also brought up suspicions that North Korea developed its nuclear program and also strengthened its weapons projects using the cash it took from the South.

“The letter downplayed the summit as a political show and Kim’s Nobel Peace Prize as a mere cash-for-prize,” a member of the task force was quoted as saying by the Hankook Ilbo.

The prosecution first raised allegations Oct. 8 that the NIS engineered a plan to strip Kim of the prize following his death in October 2009.

The plan also included blocking nationwide mourning for the progressive-minded Kim amid worsening public sentiment against Lee.

Meanwhile, the task force separately requested the prosecution to promptly open an investigation into Choo Myeong-ho, chief of the NIS domestic intelligence unit during Lee’s term.

He is suspected of orchestrating illegal surveillance of high-profile figures and celebrities who were critical of Lee. They include Seoul Mayor Park Won-soon.

The Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office detained Choo, Tuesday, on charges of abuse of authority and political interference in violation of the NIS Law.